The Student Recreation Center is opening today, and CSUN students can expect a new Wellness Center in place of the old Fitness Centre sometime in January 2013.

The Wellness Center will be a place where students can receive educational mentoring and health services. The building was approved by the University Student Union on Feb. 21, 2010, and the new Wellness Center will be operated by the Klotz Student Health Center in partnership with the College of Health and Human Development and the USU, said Aida Johnson, director of the SRC.

“The Wellness Center will support discipline-based and interdisciplinary internships, externships and educational programs supervised by faculty, clinical staff and assigned mentors,” Johnson said.

Debra Hammond, executive director of the USU, said students are sleep-deprived, and the center’s goal will be to help students to relax and meditate. She also added that the Wellness Center will have a tranquil environment for students to be as stress-free as possible.

“A recent survey recently came out about college students’ health and wellness and it found that college stress impacts students’ ability to be and do their best in school,” Hammond said. “So the University Student Union decided to come up with concepts to help students with healthy lifestyle changes and educational resources.”

The Klotz Student Health Center will offer a handful of their health services to the new center, said Yolanda Reid Chassiakos, director of the Klotz Student Health Center.

“After seeing the success of the Living Well Lounge two years ago, we wanted to provide a larger facility near the Student Recreation Center that compliments SRC services and helps students be well and healthy,” Chassiakos said. “We want to provide sports medicine, massage therapy, chiropractic, acupuncture, nutrition, health education and stress reduction services in this larger space for students.”

More services are being considered from the College of Health and Human Development, such as physical therapy, fitness, kinesiology and more.

“The Wellness Center will be great for CSUN because college students are very stressed,” said Florence Luu, 19, a biology major. “It will be a nice addition to all of the other resources we have on campus.”

Budget and student cost are still in development, but the new Wellness Center will offer free or low-cost health and education services to students, faculty and staff, Johnson said.

The  Klotz Student Health Center’s Student Health Advisory Committee did a survey of students, asking what services they’d like to see from them in the Wellness Center.  This is a link to the results of this survey.